Tag Archives for scientist

psgurel– Today I am miniprepping! If you remember last week, I was doing PCR to get a specific DNA construct. After doing PCR, there are several steps before you have nice clean DNA. For the DNA I’m using (plasmid DNA) the final step is to extract your DNA from bacteria. Lucky for us, several companies make “miniprep” kits that make this process super quick and easy. It takes about 30min, and then you have (hopefully) nice, clean DNA!

crestwind24– This is crazy! I am also doing mini preps of DNA this morning!! SAMESIES!! Preparing DNA is a major part of most labs, as made obvious by todays post. I am making DNA that will label synapses in neurons in C. elegans. Once I have the DNA that I want, we will inject it into developing embryos, and then I will have transgenic worms!! Hopefully with glowing synapses!! This will allow me to visualize connections between different neurons.

psgurel – I’ve just spent most of my morning in lab meeting, and will spend my afternoon going to a few lectures. Presenting work and getting feedback is a critical part of science. Lab meetings are somewhat more informal sessions where the entire lab can get together and discuss specific details on members’ projects. It’s helpful for all involved in terms of troubleshooting, fine tuning direction of the research project, etc. It’s fun, but can also be somewhat tiring. Here’s my post lab meeting selfie 🙂

crestwind24 – This morning I came into lab very early to make sure I got all of my experiments done before heading to Philadelphia in the afternoon. One of the things I needed to do was run 4 PCR reactions and then image the products of the reactions using gel electrophoresis. Or more simply, I needed to make specific fragments of DNA from the C. elegans genome, and then make sure I made the correct DNA by looking at its size. When I visualized the PCR reactions separated by size on an agarose gel (top panel), I did not see the size DNA I was making with the PCR. Instead I saw a bunch of randomly sized bands and smears (hence my grumpy face when sitting at the gel imager, bottom left). Luckily, since I was in lab so early, I redid the PCR at a different temperature and got nice crisp bands at the exact size I expected (right bottom panel)!!! I love when molecular biology works!!!

The climate may be changing, but I don’t think man is contributing to it. Well, I think it’s just the natural course of things. … there’s no scientific evidence that shows any of that. I’m not sure there’s any any evidence to prove that there’s man-made catastrophic global warming. Well, there’s no significant scientific evidence. Well, I am a scientist. You know, I believe in peer-reviewed science. But, I don’t see any peer-reviewed science that proves that there is man-made catastrophic climate change.

Nature News has published a terrific article on being LGBT in the scientific community by M Mitchell Waldrop. The article examines acceptance and discrimination faced by LGBT scientists, as well as their comfort level being out and pround at work. It includes personal stories and a number of great quotes from a personal hero of mine, Ben Barres. Thank you Mitchell Waldrop for this article, and kudos to Nature News for recognizing the importance of LGBT issues in science!

Still, without minimizing the challenges that remain, older LGBT scientists stress how far the world has come in a remarkably short time. “When I’m contacted by young people,” says Barres, “I always tell them that the fears are so much greater than the reality. And I always encourage them to be open, because they will be so much happier. If you’re doing good science, if you’re a great teacher — that’s what matters.”

I’m not a scientist either but I can use my brain and I can talk to one. – Charlie Crist, Running for Florida Governor, responding to candidate Rick Scott, who claimed he couldn’t comment on climate change since he is not a scientist.